Welcome To Zelo Street!

This is a blog of liberal stance and independent mind

Saturday, 18 April 2015

Elveden - The Sun Lies

Those with short memories may have already forgotten the condemnation of the Police’s use of the Regulation Of Investigative Powers Act (RIPA) in order to get phone providers to give them details of who had been communicating with the Sun’s non-bullying political editor Tom Newton Dunn. Journalists across the political spectrum were rightly outraged that sources were being exposed and pursued.

Now, it seems that those with short memories include others working at the Super Soaraway Currant Bun, such is the absence of self-awareness at the shopping, pursuit, prosecution and conviction of more than two dozen of those sources. It is as if the people who the Sun persuaded to part with information in exchange for a little, shall we say, lubrication of the monetary wheels, have been airbrushed out of recent history.

Not only that, but it also seems that Rupe’s downmarket troops don’t care too much not just about the numbers, but what this means for the future: if handing over information with a view to seeking a better standard of annual holiday, an easier upgrade of car, an overdue refurbishment of the family home, or a more comfortable retirement gets you landed in the slammer, future volunteers may be hard to find.

Instead, after Press Gazettereported “The Crown Prosecution Service is scrapping most of the planned trials involving journalists accused of payments to public officials … The move follows three more tabloid journalists being found not guilty by a jury today”, the Sun’s reaction to this latest development in the Operation Elveden saga was a front page splash shrieking “CROWN PERSECUTION SERVICE”.

Managing Editor Stig Abell Tweeted the headline, and dutifully followed with the portrayal of “48-0” as a scoreline. Victimhood-portrayal expert, and occasional Sun PR, Dylan Sharpe chimed in “F.P. Cup Latest: 48-0 … (That’s Freedom of the Press) … And gate receipts of £20m+”. Newton Dunn, with magnificent lack of self-awareness, snorted “Saunders and Hogan-Howe should admit they made a hideous blunder and apologise, says [Trevor Kavanagh]”. None of them wanted to give readers the right story.

Perhaps this was because the “48-0” was not true? And it wasn’t: as Peter Jukes pointed out, if the sources prosecuted were included, the zero would have to be replaced by the number 27. And the rozzers only got sufficient information to prosecute all 27 because the Murdoch empire shopped them, yes, betrayed them, every last one.

All of those people were encouraged by the Murdoch press to act in a way that was illegal. All of them were then betrayed. But when others are reluctant to play that game, it will be someone else’s fault - the post-Leveson “chilling effect”, the rotten lefties (including the Guardian), political correctness gorn mad, all will be blamed. But it won’t be the Murdoch empire’s fault, no sirree. They will remain pure as the driven snow.

What a bunch of slimy, dishonest, deceitful, carping hypocrites. Pass the sick bucket.

2 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I'm curious about one thing - does the CPS operate under the same rules as the Civil Service in a pre-election period because whatever the merits of the decisions here and in the Janner case they have generated a great deal of contentious politically charged headlines which were rather predictable - the sort that are normally to be avoided if at all possible. Note I don't include the Coulsen trial postponement in this, as it was impossible to see how a trial could go on right now - though why they didn't pick this up earlier is another matter.

The press have made a big thing about how much the investigation has cost and how long it has lasted but the main reason that things have taken so long is because News International destroyed lots of the evidence and initially refused to co-operate with the police.

Whilst the investigation may have been expensive when it came to the actually prosecutions the prosecutor had one hand tied behind his back because he had to operate under a tight budget but the defense could spend as much as it liked to fight the charges and protect the Murdoch brand.